Communication with portable cellular telephones (“portable devices”) is often achieved with direct communication with the portable device and a base station, e.g., a “cellular tower”. However, such direct communication is often problematic due to any number of technical and environmental factors. For instance, in urban areas, buildings often block radio frequency (“RF”) signals that are emitted between the portable device and a base station, which may prevent a communications link from being established or may lead to a low quality link.
One potential improvement to the typical telecommunication system is to utilize relay nodes which can act as a relay or “repeater” between the portable devices and the base stations. These relay nodes may be a part of a vehicle, e.g., an automobile. Such vehicular relay nodes may change the dynamics of the telecommunications system by increasing capacity for each base station and/or limiting the amount of additional base stations that may be needed to anticipate future growth of the system.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for telecommunications network planning with vehicle-based relay nodes. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.